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Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Curves and Angles and Treezilla

Let's start with the cards so those of you who have no interest in my babbling, bumbling life will get what you came for and not feel like I've done an ol' bait and switch.

I need a bunch of birthday cards, and out came Ombre Builders to give me two pretty, pink cards...one for a girl with a curvy personality and one for a girl who's square.

I like how this raised panel looks a bit
like a whimsically decorated cake layer.

These types of cards, with lots of white, splashes of happy color, and graphic style, make me bounce in my chair and clap my hands like a kid getting ice cream with sprinkles on top.

It's too cold in Ohio for ice cream right now.

Note that the curvy card gets a curvy sentiment, and the square card gets a square, sans serif sentiment. That's key. Also note that, on the second card, the word Birthday is on a line with the next-to-bottom square. That subtle alignment unifies the card subtly.

But there's nothing subtle about the hot pink and bright green. Reminds me of a wrap-around skirt my mom made me around 1978-79. Pink and green print with frogs on it. So very preppy. Yes, I wore the skirt with a white Izod shirt and carried a Bermuda bag with matching cover.

Ah, to be young and stylish!

Anyway, let's get to Treezilla before I go winging off to Never-Never Land. If you read my latest post on the other blog, you'll know I'm in a verrrry weird mood this Advent season.

We have a tradition of going to Big Tree Plantation to cut our own Christmas trees. We didn't go last year because we spent Christmas in Omaha with hubby's family. Clearly, missing a year has turned us into idiots because we saw this tree (pictured with my cute and cold 14-year-old) and thought it would fit in our living room.

Anyway, we cut down the tree (and by we I mean my husband and elder son), and the nice folks at Big Tree shook out the old needles, trimmed the bottom branches, wrapped the tree in twine for easier handling, and tied it to the roof of our car. It was a lovely experience, full of festive laughter and joy.

Then, we got home.

"Man, the tree is really heavy," said my husband.

"Really, it's way heavier than I remember previous trees. I'm not kidding," he insisted.

"It's giving me a hernia!" he continued.

"It's too heavy for the tree stand. It'll tip for sure," he worried.

"Let me go buy a bigger stand before we take it inside," I replied.

"Okay, that's a good idea," he agreed.

Forty minutes later, the two big guys carried the tree inside, we got it in the stand, cut the twine off, and out springs...

TREEZILLA!!!!!

Y'all, I laughed hysterically for about ten minutes. Hubs thought I'd never stop. This thing is ridiculously rotund. No wonder it was so heavy. We did have to trim the top a bit to fit our nine-foot ceiling, and the trunk is a bit crooked. But dang. Our furniture is all out of whack, and we'll need to take it out of the house in pieces, but what an awesomely great--and stupid--thing we did.

Here's the tree in its decorated glory.

Decorating this behemoth was intimidating, prickly...and exhausting, which is why I didn't post anything last night.

17 comments:

That's just awesome, I adore your tree. It's one that you'll talk about years from now. By the way, my skirt was hot pink and neon green with bright yellow 5 inch stars around it. Given it was the early 90s, it was also very short. For that reason, I am very partial to the second card.

I love Treezilla. I love Christmas tree stories, usually they are epic. One year my buddy Ed asked his 15 and 17 year old kids if daddy needed to get a tree for his apartment or was the one at mommy's house good enough? They said no tree for daddy. Christmas eve evening, Ed calls me in a panic, "The kids changed their minds! Daddy needs a tree!!!!" So I rushed out with him and we got ourselves a very large tree for pennies on the dollar. Not wanting to battle crowds we thought we'd be clever by getting tree decorations at the grocery store. That place turned out to be packed and most of the decorations were gone. We managed a pack or two of bulbs, a string of lights and lots and lots of tinsel. We propped the tree in a corner so we didn't have to decorate the whole thing, put on the few bulbs, the lights back and forth across the front, and tinseled the heck out of it. It was awesome!

Love your cards, but I love your tree story better! I think I laughed as long as you did when I saw the picture of Nick and George with six feet of tree separating them! What a classic story. Thanks for the laugh! : D

Cards are fantastic, but treezilla story even better!!! We did that one year and had to tie it to the wall with a rope and ring bolt to keep it from tipping. It was my first year with a cathedral ceiling and we had no sense. Fun forever memories♥ Merry Christmas to you all.

First, I love treezilla! Right now, my mother has lost all of our Christmas ornaments, so we have a tree with lights and nothing else. (I have to live with my family because I have a severe back injury and need their help.) Second, I have a legitimate question about your cards. You usually say that angles love curves. However, both of these cards are perfect. If you switched the sentiments around, they wouldn't look as great. Is there a reason for that in this case?

I love your cards, always appreciate your articulating your design decisions so I can learn. And I really loved the tree story, except that I rather expected it would end up with your family having to move out of the house for the season because The Tree took up all the room!

Your tree is gorgeous and has a special place in your home (OK it has the whole of your home). It has already given you so much pleasure as a family I'm sure it will continue to do so for the rest of the festive season.

Hahahaha! Love your tree! I have to guard against this myself. Trees don't look SO big when they are growing out there in God's living room, but then when we get them in our living room, well . . . . Now I tell myself to look for tall, skinny ones, and I take a tape measure to make sure they are no wider than 48 inches. But yours is glorious, and you will all laugh about it from now on. Wonderful!PS. Can't believe how old your sons look!

Wonderful tree story. And it looks beautiful all dressed up. We moved to a condo this year; our huge artificial tree was perfect in our last house. This great room is quite a bit smaller. We had to move a chair into our bedroom and it's still pretty crowded. I don't care though; I love it!